Overhaul Suggestions?

[Kerlysis]

Hopefully, this is the correct forum.

 

I'm looking to clean out the rat's nest of discontinued, experimental, and/or obsolete esms and esps that is my load list, and start fresh, so was wondering-

 

What would be a good overhaul mod to start with? Most of my mods are simple texture/mesh additions/replacers, quests or community bugfixes, so I'm a bit stumped by the juggernauts of the modding world, overhauls.

 

I'm using Sperg on my current, soon to be abandoned playthrough(yes, I know, but I'm counting it since it is a major perk change) at the moment, but still find a magic based character...underwhelming, and my ability to make perk-based mods play nice together is pretty shyte.

 

Any suggestions or comparisons would be welcome.

[Azakiel]

I currently use a combination of Mighty Magick and ACE - Combat Skills as my overhaul set.

[ArtMurder]

It takes some tweaking to get them to work together, but I use Skyrim Redone as my main overhaul, accompanied by all the ESRO modules that are compatible with it. I also use ASIS and WTF to make the game more 'random'.

 

Beyond that I use Frostfall and Realistic Needs and Diseases to make the world feel more alive.

 

I use Skyrim Economics (make sure to remove the ESRO vendor modules if you use it! ) and morrowloot to make items more rare and valuable.

 

Don't forget mods like Immersive Armors, Immersive Weapons, Immersive Animals, and Interesting NPCs to add more of, well, everything to skyrim.

 

Also there are the 'must have mods' SkyUI, iHUD, RaceMenu, and Alternate Start.

 

Lastly you can use Climates Of Tamriel to overhaul the weather and Imaginator to make skyrim look AMAZING without the need for messing with ENBs.

[Kerlysis]

How much tweaking is 'some'? I can follow load order and file overwrites for days, but have never used wryebash or anything like that. I managed to get Frostfall working for about half a week before one of my idiot mods started being finicky, and was impressed with it.

[ArtMurder]

I don't like wrye bash. If you have BOSS you can do it, it will tell you if you have done something wrong.

 

Basically, you install SkyRe, then go to ESRO and check the compatibility it will list the modules you can combine with SkyRe without having to worry about conflicts.

 

If you want to use ASIS and WTF you can also look into getting 'Reproccer' (automatically adjusts other mods to fit SkyRe so no need to install a dozen patches) These three tools are are all Sky Proc tools (very easy to use dynamic patches) You can download SUM which will run all of these patcher sin the correct order, and run BOSS with ONE click.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/29865

 

I also suggest you look into "boss userlist Manager" if you have a few pesky mods BOSS isn't grabbing you have to manually place every time, this is a god send, allowing you to set them to load where you want when you run boss normally. This, combined with SUM I just click one button and my game is automatically repatched with several different dynamic patches and my load order organized! ALl of these tools are as easy to install as any mod too, just drag and drop! ^_^ Though, you have to have the most up to date Java, but you should have that anyways more then likely.

 

Skyrim Redone also has a module called 'survivalism' made for frostfall specifically. You can also grba the mdos footprints and wet and cold, these go VERY well with frostfall for the visual aspect!

[Kerlysis]

ArtMurder: That sounds pretty excellent. A survival oriented mod build without the pain in the ass of making new bashes every update... I think I shall give it a try. Thank you.

 

Azakiel: MM looks pretty awesome for a spellcaster. Thanks for the tip.

Edited April 9, 2013 by Kerlysis

[ArtMurder]

Your welcome! ^_^ I've currently ave 5 different skyrim installs thanks to SIS, and this is by FAR my favorite!

 

I also use enhanced blood textures, deadly mutilation and realistic ragdolls to make the visual aspect of combat a bit more realistic.

 

Also, ASIS gives spells to all your NPCs even from other mods! (SkyRe will suggest disabling this option in BOSS but I suggest not doing it, I leave it own because it's the reason I got ASIS, and I have never had any issues whatsoever. ) So downloading a good number of magical mods is a very good idea, since a lot of them work well together.

 

Some epll mods you may want to look into are:

Wrath Of Nature

Apocalypse

MidasSkyrim

ColettesRevenge

EmpoweredMagic

ForgottenMagic

Edited April 9, 2013 by ArtMurder

[Kerlysis]

I tried Empowered before, and really liked it, but it conflicted with some other shyte mod that I couldn't load a save without. Nice! It'll take forever to download all these on my connection, but I'm rather enthused now. Most of my Nexus experience is with FO NV, so any suggestions you can think of are welcome as I d/l and build this new mod list- there are probably all sorts of must haves that I've missed while dallying in the Mojave.

[ArtMurder]

ALright, let me think...

 

Static Mesh Improvement is a bit of a chore to install, but a MUST (it just takes a LOT of copy pasting but thats it)

Wearable Lanterns

Amazing Follower Tweaks

Convenient Horses

No Spinning Death Animation (combine with the ragdol mod mention before for maximum realism)

Move It! (makes people move out of the damn way)

Hoth + Atvir (followers) there is a LOT of follower mods out there, but this two are by FAR the most realistic and immersive, and are great to have on your team! Of coarse, Interesting NPCs adds a TON of followers.

Water Fountains - works great with Realistic Needs and Diseases, so you don't have to visit inns to buy water or wander off into the woods for water

Sit Anywhere - with just the click of a button sit anywhere! If you get the 'cow' glitch try adding it as an 'exception' to WTF and ASIS

The Dance of Death - slow-mo kill moves annoying you? Fix them.

Hardy Giants - Makes giants a real force to fear

Enchanting Freedom + Artifact Disenchanting - SkyRe butchers enchanting smithing and alchemy, this helps make it fun again, without making it broken again.

Tales of Lycanthropy - a MUST if you plan on playing as a werewolf

Realistic Room Rental

Expanded Winterhold Ruins - Makes winterhold not feel like "The town the developers forgot"

SkyRealism - Time and Travel - Goes good with RND, makes time pass a lot slower.

No Twitching Dragon Death Animation

SkyTEST - You have been ambushed by 3 lions 2 bears and 5 wolves working in perfect tandom for the LAST TIME!

Winter is Coming - Frostfall just isnt complete without it

Dragon Soul Relinquishment - Do you hate being at end game with 58 dragon souls and every shout unlocked? NO MORE!

Lush Grass + Lush Trees = Realistic woods

W.a.t.e.r. + Waves (if you have dragonborn)Makes water look super realistic!

Auto Unequip Ammo - do quivers bug you? Then this is for you.

Realistic Wildlife Loot - Goes good with RND, makes being a hunter actually feasible

Radiant and Unique Potions and Poisons - Make potions pretty

Lanterns Of Skyrim - great if you add a mod to make it darker

Fishing in Skyrim - makes getting fish with frostfall possible. Also goes nice with RND

101bugs + Better Fish + Sky Birds - skyrim feels MUCH more alive and diverse!

Enhanced Towns and Cities - just adds a little atmosphere to the smaller towns of skyrim

Unofficial Patch for Skyrim and every official DLC you own - a MUST - Keep in mind RND needs a patch for the Skyrim Unofficial Patch!

 

I use ALL of these mods together in the same load order, so I know they work pretty well together! ^_^

Edited April 9, 2013 by ArtMurder

[Azakiel]

For general gameplay and graphics mods, as well as some limited ini tweaks, I would suggest taking a look at the S.T.E.P. guide.

 

for a more in depth look at graphical settings and ini tweaks can be found here: http://www.geforce.co.uk/optimise/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide#1

 

I'll throw in a second recommendation for ASIS, and while you are looking at SkyProc patchers, can I advise you check out Automatic Variants if you want a wider variety of textures being used for various creatures.

 

BOSS is obviously a must have, as is TES5Edit (used to clean dirty mods and compare conflicting changes to mod records).

 

I can't stress this enough, you should always clean mods that BOSS marks as dirty, as this can solve all manner of problems that may occur in your game. Personally I tend to take it one step further and clean all mods I install (with the exception of the Unofficial Patches and small mods designed to revert changes made by the unofficial patch that some people didn't like), but at the very least you need to clean the ones flagged in the BOSS log.

 

I know some people don't like Wrye Bash, but personally I think that it vastly superior to NMM in pretty much every way (especially in terms of being able to easily see which mods have missing or out of order master files, and for the ability to keep track of conflicting files in case of mod uninstallation (i.e. if you install 2 texture packs which have some conflicting files, and then uninstall the texture pack you installed second, then wrye bash will reinstall the overwritten files from the 1st texture pack) which I'm fairly certain NMM is incapable of doing